Greece has collapsed. The numbers are straight forward (via the BBC):
- There are more unemployed people than employed.
- About 1,000 people are day are losing their jobs (that’s a big number in a small country).
- 73% of the population wants to emigrate (most can’t afford to).
The government is bankrupt and nearly everyone is running out of Euros to pay the bills. Slowly, but surely, the lights are going out in Greece (again).
Greece is a great example of what collapse in the modern world looks like:
- Cubicle jobs in corporate and government bureaucracies evaporate.
- Personal savings aren’t worth much due to across the board market declines (from stocks to bonds to commodities), and what’s left depletes rapidly.
- The cost of essentials, from food to energy to water to products, get increasingly hard to afford.
- Rent and mortgages become negotiable.
- While protests can occasionally turn into riots, the biggest security risk is from petty property crime and government corruption.
As you can see, real collapse is not as dramatic as depicted in Hollywood, it’s just depressing.
Fortunately, a collapse like this is something that we can bounce back from quickly. How?
By becoming resilient in our personal lives. By learning how to make our own jobs. By becoming healthy and fit and helping others to do the same. By turning our homes into productive assets that reduce our expenses and increase our incomes. By connecting with our families and neighbors to build resilient communities and dynamic local economies. By producing most of the food, water, energy, and products we need locally. By learning to sell and trade artisanal products and services we make locally, to the world.
Resilient Lighting?
Here’s something called the solar tube.
It’s a pretty big improvement over the traditional skylight (installation, cost, quality/quantity of light, reliability, etc.). The dome at the top of the tube collects natural light. The tube’s interior surface is reflective to allow the light to travel around curves and bends. Finally, there’s an acrylic circlet at the end of the tube (which is on the ceiling of the room) to diffuse the light into the room.
Anyway, if you have the time and the inclination, I’m pretty sure you could DIY almost all of the elements of this system to both improve the quality of the light in enclosed spaces and reduce the cost of providing it (per the pay-back period in the graphic).
That’s it for today. I’m going to take advantage of what’s left of the great day outside to refinish my deck furniture. See you Thursday.
Resiliently Yours,
JOHN ROBB
